Select Internet Stocks Rise Amid Bear Backdrop

Investors start to pick through the rubble of Internet stocks as a handful of issues rise today, even against a backdrop of bearishness for the sector and stocks in general. The Dow, NASDAQ, and ISDEX all drop in the continued malaise of market murkiness brought on by rate hike clouds.

The question some may ask is are stocks now at a buying stage? Today's snapshot:

iVillage (NASDAQ:IVIL), cut nearly in half from its trading level of a month ago, gains some ground with a 6.45% jump to $44.375 per share. As one of the leading Web media firms devoted to the women demographic I think that's appealing on one level. At $1 billion market cap, however, I think IVIL at north of 50x annualized revenue, seems frothy unless it can pull off some ecommerce deals aimed at its audience. If it can be the 'AOL for women' then that's interesting.

CheckPoint Software (NASDAQ:CHKP) wins Network Computing's award as best firewall software product with its Firewall-1 product for the fourth year in a row. My hat's off to CheckPoint for maintaining its leadership position. CHKP shares up slightly at 1% to $42 1/16 today.

BroadVision (NASDAQ:BVSN) inks a deal with utility company software provider Customer Information Systems Conference to allow utility customers tailor-made customer service and account management services. Now we're seeing more nuts and bolts application of the Internet, rather than just consumer aps.